Hospitalstuck
by anyrandomfandom
Summary: Hospital AU
1. Chapter 1

"Roxy, you know that I will pay you whether you're working or not right now, don't you?" asked Dr. Egbert. "You can go be with your daughter,"

"Thank you," she said, shifting back and forth on her feet, "But I think Rose needs some space from me. I want to be with her, I do, but I get the feeling that it's better that I let her have time to herself. I don't want to leave her alone in the building, and I really need to keep myself busy so I don't drive myself insane. So, I'd prefer if I could still work,"

"You can adjust your schedule however you like. Dirk and Porrim are completely supporting you. You can skip out on doing your rounds whenever you want and I'll have them take over,"

"Thank you," she said. "I'm going to go see if she wants anything," Roxy walked into Rose's room.

"Dirk picked you up another book for when you want it," she smiled, placing it down on the nightstand beside Rose. It was right next to the bouquet of roses with a card, signed from Jade, Dave, and John, telling her to feel better because they loved her, and that they were always there for her and missed her.

"Thanks, Mom," Rose was lying in the hospital bed hooked up to an IV. The drab room at least looked a little better since Dirk had picked up a pink blanket from their house that Rose had knitted, in hopes of making Rose warm and comfy.

"Are the colours of yarn we have here good? I can get you whatever you want,"

"They're fine, Mom. Thanks," Rose answered expressionlessly.

"Do you know what you want for dinner?"

"Anything's fine,"

"Okay. Can I get you anything at all? Maybe we could play a game?"

"I'm okay, Mom,"

"Alright. Dr. Egbert organized so that your friends will visit you tomorrow,"

"That's nice,"

"I love you, Rose," said Roxy, heading back out of her room.

"I love you, too, Mom," Roxy wanted a drink. But, then what would she do? Just sit around and cry beside Rose like she did last night? She couldn't keep putting her through that. She needed to at least attempt focusing on her work, so she went to check on her osteosarcoma patient.

"How are you feeling, sweetheart?" asked Roxy. Rufioh looked up at her for a moment, but she could tell he didn't want to take his eyes off of Tavros. It always hurt her to see the worry and concern in the parents eyes. She could tell that he was feeling Tavros' pain.

"Just did chemo. He threw up a minute ago, so I'm going to give him some Kytril," said Dirk.

"I can get that for him," said Roxy calmly taking over and applying a transdermal patch to Tavros' left arm.

"Roxy, Karkat came down with another fever before I started here. I was going to go check on him when I was done. Would you like to go do that now? Or you could stay and finish up, and I'll go. Whatever you want," said Dirk.

"Yeah, I'll go take care of that in just a minute," she said, gently stroking the side of Tavros' face, and then looking over his chart before stepping out. Rufioh was a much easier parent to deal with, but she understood that it would be easiest for Dirk to finish up Tavros' care. It was best to have the consistency of the same nurse performing the treatment. Now she had to face the nonstop questions and concerns of Kankri and Aranea. It's good that the parents make sure they're completely aware of what's going on with their child, she knew that, but these two were just so demanding of answers. She picked up Karkat's chart on the door and read over what she'd missed from the past two days. Dirk had signed off on Karkat having a 38.6 fever. She sighed. It had only been two weeks since his last fever. She smiled as she entered the room.

"Good afternoon," She barely had a chance to say anything when Aranea started ranting about the patterns of Karkat's fever and if that meant that his lymphoma was progressing.

"The presence of B symptoms don't necessarily mean he's getting worse, but it's not a good sign," said Roxy calmly.

"Last night he got extremely sweaty again. He's been having night sweats almost every day this week," added Kankri.

"I understand. Karkat, what do you want to get out of the way first? Should I feel your lymph nodes or take your temperature?" Karkat thought for a second, and with a frustrated look on his face answered,

"Temperature,"

"Alright," She sat down beside him on his bed and put his thermometer in his mouth.

"38.7," she read off to his parents before she began to feel the sides of his neck. His lymph nodes there were extremely swollen, and the hot feel of his skin was heart wrenching.

"No changes so far," she said to his anxiously watching parents as she undid his hospital gown in the front. She felt along his collarbones, and down to his chest. He was still perfectly normal there, besides the extra heat radiating from him due to the fever. She moved the back of his hospital gown down a bit so she could feel his armpits.

"His axillary lymph nodes are still very swollen, but everything else is fine so far," she said as she undressed him completely and pressed along his groin.

"Slight swelling in his inguinal lymph nodes. All in all, no changes," She could read on Aranea's face that she couldn't decide whether she should be happy that there wasn't any more swelling, or disappointed that there wasn't any less.


	2. Chapter 2

Roxy had picked up take-out from an Italian restaurant across the street for dinner. Rose sat up in the window seat of her room while she packaged up the leftovers to put in one of the fridges located inside the nurses' station, in case Rose wanted a snack later. She didn't really eat that much. Roxy came back to Rose gazing at the sunset. She set up Scrabble on the now cleared off table and played a game with her daughter. She was just about to ask Rose if she'd like to play again when she excused herself to take a shower.

"Okay, sweetie," said Roxy. "I'll come back whenever you want me to. I'm always here for you,"

_"Shit,"_ Roxy realized she shouldn't have gotten all-sentimental when she saw the guilty look in Rose's eyes. She slowly walked down to the hallway, trying to pull herself together.

Porrim had given her new patient his first radiation therapy earlier in the day. He normally stays up somewhat late, but she wanted to take his vitals before his mom left for the night.

"Good evening," she walked into the room. The mother was in a chair, and the patient was lying in bed watching a movie. There was a girl lying beside him, holding his hand. He paused the movie while the girl with her gorgeous red eye shadow looked deeply into her eyes, judging her.

"Good evening," answered Latula.

"How are you feeling, Sollux?"

"Thitty," he answered in his adorable lisp.

"Anything I can get you before taking your vitals?"

"Not really,"

"Can I stay?" asked the girl, looking around a little anxiously.

"You can stay," Porrim smiled. She got out an ophthalmoscope and checked his pupils. Aradia cuddled up into him, watching her every move.

"Perfect," she said as she moved onto his pulse, and then undid the front of his hospital gown. She gently pressed her stethoscope onto his skinny, and quite perky for a boy, chest. She ran it all along his chest and down to his stomach before sitting him up a bit, to listen with it pressed up against his back. The girl sat up a little with him, too, her hand that was not holding his placed firmly on his shoulder. Porrim got the thermometer down and turned it on, sitting beside him on the bed. She placed it under his tongue and began to wait as Aradia gently began to run her fingers through Sollux's hair.

"His vital signs are perfect," Porrim smiled at Latula, slipping the thermometer out from Sollux's lips.

"Honey, I'm gonna take Aradia home," said Latula, standing up and giving his forehead a kiss as Porrim put away the thermometer and recorded his vitals.

"Mom," he embraced her, with a frightened tinge to his voice.

"You can spend another night by yourself just fine, honey bee," she tried to console him as Porrim left to check on Roxy. She was pretty sure that she had already gone to spend the rest of the night with Rose, but she wanted to be positive.

"Roxy?" she was sitting at her desk, organizing her papers. She looked up to Porrim, who walked behind her. She stretched her arms out and down into an awkward hug with Roxy's neck. Roxy put her hands up on Porrim's arms as she kissed the top of her head.

"I'm going home, Rolal," Porrim said, still holding onto her. "Dirk said he could cram all of the kids into his car, so I was thinking about just coming when my shift starts tomorrow. That ok? I wasn't planning on being in Rose's room tomorrow, anyways. It was going to be just the kids. But, if you want me to be here to hang out with you, I will," Porrim didn't particularly want to sit alone the next day waiting on the kids, and she figured that would be what happened if she came in early. She was still a tad nervous though that maybe Roxy did want her there with her.

"No, no. Just come when you're shift starts. Don't feel like you ALSO need to contribute to overcrowding Rose's room," Roxy sassily smirked.


	3. Chapter 3

"Rose!" Kanaya ran into the room embracing her matesprit. Rose hugged her, too. The warmth felt disappointing to her. She certainly did a horrible job in her attempt to detach herself from the world.

"How's my sister?" Dave smiled, trying to pretend he wasn't nervous seeing the machines she was hooked up to.

"We went through the Taco Bell drive-thru," said John, as Dirk sat the bag of food on the table. "Are you hungry? Mr. Strider said you normally ate kind of late,"

"Yes, I am hungry. Thanks, everyone," Rose fake smiled.

"So, girlie. You wanna stay in bed or do you want me to sit you in the window?" asked Dirk.

"Window," said Rose, starting to sit herself up.

"I gotcha," he said, motioning at her to stay where she was.

"Can I help?" asked Dave.

"Yeah, lil' man, just wheel that thing along behind me when I carry her," he pointed to her IV. Dave carefully brought it behind her as Dirk picked up Rose in his strong arms and settled her down into the window seat.

"Rose, are you making a scarf?" asked Jade excitedly, looking through her materials sitting in the open closet. She was scared that Rose could've been sitting around doing nothing, and consequently was quite happy to see her productivity.

"I am, Jade. Perhaps if you pick out the colours from what I have stored, I'll make one for you later,"

"You don't have to make anything for me!" exclaimed Jade. She reached into one of her large pockets in her fuzzy coat that she had yet to sit aside in the excitement of getting the chance to see her friend again.

"I had this in my house. I thought you might want it. It's not much, but I'll bring you more," she added a bit of rainbow yarn, leftover from some random project, in with the materials and sat down beside Rose in the window.

"I'm heading out," said Dirk, taking a few things from the pile of food. "Get me if any of y'all want anything. I'll be back in a bit over an hour so I can bring y'all to where Jade'll be staying,"

"Bye," said Dave, as Dirk made his way out of the room. Kanaya sorted out the food and napkins as everyone sat down.

"What was he speaking of that involved Jade?" asked Rose, extremely concerned, as Kanaya lovingly put her hand on top of hers.

"She's going to stay here for a week starting tomorrow," said John.

"I'll be in a different ward of the hospital for a sleep study about my narcolepsy," said Jade.

"Bro reorganized his work schedule so he'll start working nights tomorrow, mostly in her ward, and Jake will stay with her during the day," explained Dave.

"I wasn't going to do it for a while, but since you were here, I asked if they could get me in,"

"Jake's been recording when she sleeps for a while now, and since she had that whole ordeal already done, she could just come in whenever the fuck she wanted," added Dave.

"Now we can hang out together so you won't be lonely!" Jade smiled.

"Thank you, Jade. I have confidence that you can make this enjoyable," Rose was a little touched.

"I'm gonna go and take the kids on a tour of where Jade'll be staying. Rose, too. That cool with you?" asked Dirk, throwing away the remainder of the garbage left over from his lunch with Roxy.

"Yeah. She hasn't been out of her room yet. It'll be a nice change," said Roxy.

"You got something to do while I'm gone?"

"Yeah, I'm going to go see how Tavros' feeling,"

"Okay. He stopped puking after getting medicated yesterday," Dirk informed her as he walked back to the room, getting a wheelchair on his way. The kids were all laughing when he came into the room, and Kanaya and Rose were cuddled up against each other. Dirk started to clean up what was left of the mess of wrappers and crumbs, so Roxy wouldn't have to later, as the kids started to get up to go walk around the hospital. He noticed Rose and Jade wearing make-up. Kanaya gave little makeovers while he was gone. She'd drawn little hearts next to their left eyes with eyeliner. Pink for Rose, and green for Jade. He then noticed how Dave "ironically" had a red heart drawn on, too. He helped Rose into the wheelchair, and Kanaya immediately took control in guiding her. Dave took the IV again, carefully making sure it followed behind without tugging at her or causing her any discomfort whatsoever. The passed by some signs with warnings on them to be quiet, and Dirk unlocked the doors to a long, plain hallway. Dirk took them down a set of desks at the end with 4 computers, and a ton of cabinets. There was neatly organized paperwork on the desks by a couple of nurses.

"This is where I'll be from 8 at night until 6 in the morning," he said, and then led them into a nearby room.

"Jade, this is where you'll be staying. I can hang out with you for most of the night if that's what you want. It's got a cable TV and DVD player. Your own bathroom, too. We'll have you all hooked up to shit to track changes in your heart rate and crap like that. It'll be a little uncomfortable, but it won't be too bad or anything. Jake can take you out of the room to see Rose for an hour or so during the day, too,"

"Yeah! He told me to text him whenever I wake up, and if you're not here, he'll come to see me. Then, we could visit Rose sometimes!"

"I'm gonna write down her therapy schedule so he'll know when he can bring you. He just needs to sign you out with one of the nurses on duty, nothing difficult to get you out of this ward,"


	4. Chapter 4

"Thanks," Roxy smiled at the Dolorosa as she wheeled Rose back to her room. The Dolorosa had been discussing Rose's depression with her, and talking about medication options while trying to get her to open up for a therapy session. They met up with Jake, who was walking with Jade into Rose's ward of the hospital. Jake and Jade had been talking a lot about things they could do to help Rose, and Jade rethought her decision to turn down Rose's offer to make her a scarf. She wanted to keep Rose busy.

"Rose! Rose!" Jade greeted her. "I changed my mind! Will you make me a scarf?"

"Of course," Rose smiled as Jake signed in himself and Jade as visitors. She pointed towards the closet as they entered her room.

"Decide between the colours available," Jade sorted through the fabric, and decided.

"Green and black! Thanks Rose!"

"Your most welcome. Will you bring the yran to me?" she requested. Roxy picked Rose up and onto the bed, and then moved her wheelchair out of the way. Jade sat down on the bed, handing Rose the yarn. Rose began to knit while they talked as if nothing was wrong. Roxy and Jake left to talk amongst themselves. Jake wanted to know about Rose's treatments, and what Jade would be going through during her hospital stay. He went out with Roxy to get some take-out from a pasta place down the street for themselves and the kids. Back in Rose's room, the adults explained to Jade how her week would be and answered her questions. Rose also helped comfort her with information on what to expect, considering that she was now in the process of getting used to staying in the hospital. After dinner, Dirk showed up early for his shift to help Jake take Jade down to her ward. Jade changed into her pajamas as Jake made the bed with her sheets, comforter and blanket he brought from home. Dirk calmly explained everything he was doing before he did it when hooking Jade up to the monitoring equipment for her polysomnogram. Jake kissed her goodbye and they stepped out to let her sleep.

"Dirk…Gosh, it just looks so uncomfortable," said Jake.

"She was such a good girl, though. I could tell she was nervous, but she followed instruction. I think she's pretty fuckin' nice and cozy in there thanks to you making the bed up like that for her. Actually, most narcolepsy patients we get still manage to fall asleep quickly. She's just fine," Dirk kissed him, and then Jake leaned in to him. Dirk put his hand reassuringly on the back of Jake's head as they hugged.

"Sollux. Baby. I have to leave," Latula said firmly. Sollux had buried himself into her chest, refusing to let go of her embrace goodbye.

"Thpend the night with me," She could tell from the way he talked that he was crying.

"Sollux, we talked about this. Your sister needs my attention, too,"

"My thithterth not thick in the hothpital," he whined.

"Oh, honey bee…all I ask is that I take her home at 9 so I can help her bathe and get to bed. I make her lunch and sometimes run errands for you in the morning after I take her to school. I almost always come here as soon as you text me that you're awake, and I only leave to get things, or Aradia, FOR YOU. Terezi's a very strong girl, but she's still blind and needs me,"

"Why can't the just thtay at Vrithka's? Mom…" his body shook with sobs.

"She takes her home from school every day and makes her dinner. Vriska already does all kinds of things around the house because her parents are barely home. HER brother is sick in the hospital, too, you know," He was crying really hard, and of course it hurt her.

"Mommy…"


	5. Chapter 5

Porrim was eating lunch at work when her phone rang. It was a terrible conversation she had on the phone during her break; she was told that Kanaya passed out from her anemia at school. She was being brought to the hospital.

"You're not feeling very good, are you?" Latula asked Aradia as she walked into the hospital with her.

"No,"

"Has your mom gotten you checked out for that yet?"

"It's an elusive feeling of sickness. I don't know how to make her believe me,"

"Still? I even talked to Damara. I don't think she completely understood me, but I talked with her,"

"She's a bitch," easily rolled off of Aradia's tongue.

"Shit, girl, I'll pay for getting you a check up. I'll talk to the nurse about it," Dirk had picked up Porrim's shift, starting an extra long day for himself. He had just stepped in to see if Sollux wanted anything when Latula came back. He talked with her for a minute about how there was a change of scheduling, causing him to be Sollux's nurse for a little while. Latula decided to take an opportunity in the conversation to mention Aradia.

"I'm not her mom, but I spend a lot of time with her and I care about her. She feels sick and sore a lot, and I don't know why, so I've been getting worried. I'll pay for everything; could you schedule to have her looked at?"

"I could examine her right now, if you want,"

"You're not busy?"

"I've got this," he turned to Aradia. "You're gonna have to undress a bit. Shirt off, a little bit of checking down your pants. Do you want me to take you to an examination room, or would you rather stay here?"

"I'm okay here," She started to lift up her top, and he put out his hand and said,

"You don't have to yet," He led her to sit down on Sollux's bed and took her temperature. Sollux sat up and held her hand while he used his other hand to rub her back, caring for her when she got examined like how she cared for him. Dirk also took Aradia's blood pressure before instructing her to undress.

"You can keep your bra on," He firmly pressed the stethoscope on the top of her breast, and then moved on to her stomach, and then running it down her back. Aradia shifted uncomfortably as he felt her neck.

"Her lymph nodes are a little swollen here," he noted. He felt her along her collarbones.

"I'm going to feel your armpits and breasts now, okay?" She let out a small noise in approval as he began to gently, but thoroughly, examine her.

"I need to check your inguinal lymph nodes, too, so lean back for me,"

"Okay," She laid down on the bed, and Sollux prepared to watch Dirk's every move while taking her hand in his.

"I'm going to feel around under your panties a bit, but nothing going inside anywhere,"

"Okay," he reached down her pants and touched over her, and then removed his hand.

"Good girl. Get back up and lean over for me," He ran his fingers down the uncomfortable girls spine, and noticed no disfiguration. He turned to Latula.

"We might want to get her an MRI at some point for the soreness, but I think our best bet is if I run some blood work on her," Latula looked into Aradia's eyes and asked,

"That okay?"

"Yeah," she said as Dirk got up to get the equipment.

"You can put your shirt back on," Aradia put on her top and laid back down next to Sollux. He started to hold her hand again as she breathed heavily due to the stress and discomfort of being examined, and he covered her eyes as Dirk came back in. Dirk stretched out her arm and started to get her blood to rush to where he wanted it before drawing out a sufficient amount. Her hand squeezed Sollux's tightly.

"You're all done," said Dirk as he bandaged her, and Sollux uncovered her eyes.

"I'll tell you what we find in a few days,"

Roxy wheeled Rose down to Kanaya's room. She'd been getting impatient about when she'd finally get to see her matesprit after her stress-related, anemic loss of consciousness.

"Damn it, Kanaya! You worried me!"

"I worried YOU? All of this happened because I'm worried about you, slut! Why do you act like you even care about me?!"

"What are you talking about? Of course I care deeply about you! I love you!"

"You may love me, but if you cared about me you wouldn't put me through this torture!" They were all up in each others faces now.

"Kanaya, I love you, I care about you, and you're anemic, and I can't do anything to change that as much as I want to," Rose was getting really worked up.

"Care about me? You wouldn't have attempted suicide if you cared about ANYONE who loves you. You gave up on me, you gave up on your mom, and you gave up on all of our friends. I'm sorry for you, Rose, I really am. But, when your hurt yourself, you hurt everyone else," as Kanaya finished ranting quickly and angrily, she pulled Rose into a messy, passionate kiss.


End file.
